Asian stocks advanced this week for the first time in three weeks, led by technology companies and commodity producers on optimism the global economic recovery is strengthening.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) surged 23 percent in Taipei as prices for dynamic-random-access-memory chips climbed to a one-month high. Canon Inc, the world’s biggest camera maker, gained 5.6 percent in Tokyo after keeping its dividend unchanged and winning approval for a takeover. BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company and Australia’s top oil producer, gained 4.6 percent in Sydney as prices for crude and metals increased after reports showed US consumer spending and incomes climbed.
“The recent data indicate the global economy is recovering faster than originally expected,” said Prasad Patkar, who helps manage about US$1.6 billion at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney. “It’s too early to say whether the recovery is self-sustaining, but we should know toward the end of first quarter 2010.”
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 1.7 percent to 119.56 this holiday-shortened week. Technology and materials stocks had the steepest gains among the index’s 10 industry groups.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 3.5 percent this week, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.6 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index in China gained 0.9 percent. Japan’s markets were closed on Wednesday for a holiday, and most other bourses were shut on Friday for Christmas.
The MSCI gauge has climbed 34 percent this year, set for its biggest annual gain since 2003, on signs government spending and lower interest rates are bolstering economies.
Stocks in the benchmark trade at 23 times estimated earnings, compared with 18 times for the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index in the US and 16 times for the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index in Europe.
Inotera Memories surged 23 percent to NT$25.30 in Taipei, the highest since May last year. Elpida Memory Inc, Japan’s biggest maker of memory chips, climbed 12 percent. Tokyo Electron Ltd, the world’s second-biggest maker of equipment to manufacture semiconductors, advanced 9.3 percent to ¥5,880.
Taiwanese share prices are expected to keep their upward momentum amid high liquidity next week, the last in a boom year for the nation’s share market, dealers said on Friday.
Institutional investors are likely to short-cover electronic firms after the sector’s recent consolidation, triggered by a pick-up in the global demand for high-tech products, they said.
For the week to Friday, the weighted index rose 218.96 points or 2.82 percent to 7,972.59 after a 0.53 percent fall a week earlier.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SECURITY: The New Zealand and Australian navies also sailed military vessels through the Strait yesterday to assert the right of freedom of navigation The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on Wednesday made its first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait in response to the intrusion by a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft into Japan’s sovereign airspace last month, Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. The Japanese news platform reported that the destroyer JS Sazanamisailed down through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, citing sources in the Japanese government with knowledge of the matter. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they concern military operations. Military vessels from New Zealand and Australia also sailed through the Strait on the same day, Wellington’s defense ministry
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected
SOVEREIGNTY EMPHASIZED: President William Lai said that Taiwan ‘absolutely will not sign’ an agreement with Beijing implying that the nation is part of China Taiwan hopes to join like-minded nations under the democratic umbrella and jointly counter authoritarian aggression, President William Lai (賴清德) said in a prerecorded speech during the annual Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday. Lai addressed the summit via video at Concordia’s invitation, using the opportunity to speak on the issue of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan and Beijing’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758. Lai’s comments came on the heels of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, which opened on Tuesday. China has “distorted” UN Resolution 2758 “in support of its ‘one China’ principle,” he said. Through its misinterpretation